Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński’s surviving output of music comprises ten compositions, whose excellent quality and attractive sound earn him a place among the most distinguished Polish Baroque composers.(…)
We do not have any archive documents concerning the figure of Szarzyński or any autographs of his works. He most probably lived during the last decades of the 17th century, though the dates of his birth and death as well
as the place or places of his activity are impossible to establish.(…)
Nearly all of Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński’s surviving works represent the seconda pratica and are structured in accordance with the concertato style typical of the second half of the 17th century. The single (but significant) exception is the Missa septem dolorum Beatae Mariae Virginis, never previously published or recorded. (…)
Szarzyński’s solo church concertos are scored typically of the era, with two violins and continuo in the accompaniment. However, the concertos are diversified with regard to form. One of those most internally varied is the soprano concerto Veni Sancte Spiritus, setting the text of the Pentecostal sequence. (…)
The tenor concerto Pariendo non gravaris and the alto concerto Quam felix curia, on the other hand, represent regular four-movement forms which consist of alternating slow and fast sections. Here Szarzyński experiments
with ‘new’ keys that go far beyond the traditional system of church modes. The former of these concertos is written in the key of C sharp minor, the latter – in B flat minor. (…)
Another solo church concerto, Ave Regina, previously published separately, in the Łowicz manuscript constituted the last part of Szarzyński’s Completorium. This cycle is a musical setting of four psalms, the hymn Te lucis ante terminum and the canticle Nunc dimittis, followed – in accordance with liturgical requirements – by a Marian antiphon. The entire cycle is scored for four voices, two violins and basso continuo. (…)
The setting of the Litany of Loreto is an extensive one-movement work, which in the Łowicz copy was entitled Litania cursoria – a Polish-Latin hybrid, possibly referring to the cursus marianus, the so-called little office in praise of the Mother of God. (…)
Ad hymnos ad cantus is a compact composition for five vocal parts with instrumental accompaniment, written in the form of a ritornello concerto (also called a rondo concerto). The said ritornello, performed tutti and characterised by a homorhythmic texture, is performed twice in its full version, while its closing measures also serve as a recurring ‘refrain’ in the mosaic-like segment “Agite ergo”.(…)
Szarzyński’s only instrumental work, Sonata for two violins and basso pro organo, is at the same time the only surviving relic of Polish instrumental music from the second half of the 17th century.

Marcin Szelest